‘Bending the Arc’ explores medical care models for the developing world

by PATRICK VARINENovember 20, 2018

In the early 1980s, two doctors and an activist were treating patients at a squatters’ settlement in Haiti.

Determined to provide the same level of medical care they would expect to receive in the United States, Dr. Paul Farmer, Dr. Jim Yong Kim and Ophelia Dahl came up with a unique and controversial idea: training everyday Haitian villagers to function as healthcare workers. Eventually, their model expanded to Peru, Rwanda, and the halls of governing bodies all over the world, many which changed healthcare policies as a result.

Their story is told through “Bending the Arc,” a documentary film that will be screened for free at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church, 4600 Old William Penn Highway, Murrysville.

As a warning to parents with younger children, the film contains a small amount of explicit language and scenes that depict severe suffering from disease.